In every respect this has been an annus horribilis for municipalities in the capital region.
Victoria city council led off with a vote to increase councillors’ salaries by a stunning 25 per cent. When this led to a predictable uproar, council played for time by appointing an “independent” task force to review the situation, all three of whose members were likely to be supportive (one was a former councillor).
Council doubled down on this fiasco by embracing plans to remove the much-loved fountain from Centennial Square, despite protests from residents, historians and architects.
The revamping is estimated to cost in the region of $11 million, and we all know what happens to municipal cost estimates.
Then there was Victoria council’s decision to place numerous “social service centres” throughout the community, some of which might permit unsupervised illicit drug use. This was rammed through with no pubic input.
On the tax front, municipalities across the region imposed a slew of whopping property tax increases. Langford led with a 15.63 per cent hike, and numerous others weighed in with raises in the eight to 10 per cent range.
Indeed, only Colwood kept its 4.9 per cent tax raise in reasonable proximity to inflation.
Considering that unaffordable housing costs are one of the major issues confronting families in the region, tax increases like these are unconscionable.
However, the recently announced plan by Saanich council to remake the Quadra/McKenzie artery belongs in a category of its own.
The aim of the plan, to surround these two vital traffic corridors with a series of “15-minute communities,” is an urban planner’s dream, but an ordeal for local residents.
At 138 pages, the document defends itself against being read by its very length.
Pretentious gobbledygook abounds. Thus we have “hub concepts,” “streetscape typologies,” “active modes of transportation” (a euphemism for “buses”), and “car light living.”
Several of the key proposals are troubling. First, the plan as drawn up and made public, called for significant stretches of McKenzie Avenue to be repurposed as primarily bus and bicycle corridors. This was to be done by reducing car lanes from the present two in each direction, to just one.
This is problematic because the plan concedes that, at present, only 11 per cent of traffic on the affected corridors is devoted to buses, and five per cent to bikes.
Cars account for around 60 per cent, with emergency services and goods vehicles making up the remainder. That meant the vast majority of traffic would face a 50 per cent reduction in driving lanes. And this on the municipality’s busiest east/west corridor, already a driver’s nightmare.
That could only lead to massive traffic jams.
Yet this is no accidental byproduct of an ill-thought out plan. The authors make clear throughout that their intention is to reduce car traffic, even if gridlock is the result.
Notably, after a storm of public outrage, Saanich Mayor Dean Murdock has said this part of the plan might be subject to review.
Next, a series of six-storey apartment buildings are to be constructed along McKenzie Avenue just east of the intersection with the Pat Bay Highway. These will be erected right up to the boundary of the Swan Lake Nature Sanctuary.
But this is one of the few remaining wetland areas in Saanich, home to migratory birds, rare endangered species and walking paths. It cannot possibly make sense to locate a string of high-rise buildings along its borders. This is environmental lunacy.
Saanich council’s current intention is to finalize the plan in January.
We can only hope that clearer heads will prevail before then.
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